A/N: Holy Schnickeys, two drabbles written in one day! This hasn't happened in an insanely long time, but it feels so good to get these stories out to the world. This was written for Draco's Den over on Facebook for the May Roll A Drabble event. My roll landed me with Blaise Zabini, Neville Longbottom, and a trope of Hurt/Comfort. This was not easy to come up with, that's for sure.

Grammarly did my beta work, so any other errors you may find are my own.

I own nothing in this story except the little plot that I was able to come up with.

Title: Words Can Hurt
Pairing: Blaise Zabini/Neville Longbottom
Rating: K
Summary: The power of words is more than anyone initially thinks, especially when words escape the mouth in anger.

Draco's Den is getting ready to host its first competition over the next few days. We'd love to have you as a member of the group! Come check us out on facebook.

Let me know what you think of this fun little drabble!

Love always,
~starr

That was the biggest mistake he could ever make. He should never have raised his voice to him. Saying those words to him was just cruel. Blaise knew it the second he saw the tears well up in Neville's eyes.

Of course, Neville was trying to hide the fact that his feelings were hurt and he was upset. Once the tears started to roll down his cheek, Neville had turned away from Blaise. Swiping his fingers furiously at his face, Nevile tried to steady his breathing and forced himself to calm down. The more agitated he could feel himself getting, the longer it was going to take him to calm down.

Blaise watched him from a distance for a few moments. His heart hurt watching the man he had come to love cry and refuse to look at him. Those stupid, hurtful words should never have come out of his mouth, but it felt like Neville wasn't listening to him, and there was only one way to get through to him. But he should have looked for a different way to make him hear him.

Deciding that he had given him enough time to get himself together, Blaise took a few steps in Neville's direction and placed a gentle hand on his back. He frowned as Neville pulled away from him and took a step toward the door of their small flat.

"Don't touch me," he mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and rubbing his biceps with his hands. "You knew what you said was going to hurt, and yet it didn't stop you from saying it."

"Neville, I'm sorry," Blaise pleaded, taking a step closer to him but being very careful not to touch him. He had learned his lesson just moments before. "I didn't think when the words came out of my mouth. You know I'd never say something like that on purpose just out of spite."

Slowly Neville turned to glance over his shoulder at Blaise. He could see the hurt painted across his face, and he knew his words were true. Cautiously, he turned around to face Blaise with a half smile on his face. "I know you wouldn't, and I know you weren't thinking, but why did you have to take your bad day at work out on me?"

"Because I'm an idiot," Blaise replied, shrugging his shoulders before opening his arms to welcome Neville in for a hug. "Per favore perdonami, amore mio?"

Neville nodded his head as he stepped into Blaise's embrace, nuzzling his head into the crook of his beloved's neck. This was exactly where he wanted to be.